They left the boys to their own devices and quickly made their way to a small and secluded bar three blocks down the road where they usually went out for drinks when Diana was in town. It was an old school place, where the barman, or barmaid in their case, didn't ask too many questions outside what you're having? And need a refill?

It was one of the main reasons they went there, because patrons and employees alike minded their own business and couldn't care less about what people around them were saying.

"You look different!" said Lois as they found a couple of free stools at the far side of the bar, close to the corner.

"I had a rough couple of weeks, thank you."

"I didn't mean that way! There's… something else in you."

As soon as they sat, the girl behind the bar, a short blondie with long hair tied in a ponytail, sporting a tattered t-shirt with a faded quote from Moulin Rouge! printed on it and frayed jeans, came to their service. "Hey girls, no time no see! What can I get you?"

"Whiskey and soda on the rocks for me," said Lois. "And for my friend Scotch with water on the side, right?" Diana nodded, as Lois had got the order right.

"And a teaspoon. The usual then. Coming up!" The girl disappeared as she ducked beneath the bar and prepared their drinks, just a few steps away.

"You know, for someone of Greek origins, I always thought you were an ouzo type of girl."

Diana smiled. "As much as I like it, it's more something to close a meal, not to start a night. I could tell you of countless of terrible hangovers, caused by too much ouzo!"

"Yeah well, I could tell you the very same with whiskey, we have a long history." Their drinks arrived just then. "Most of all during the last year."

"I told you, the first year is the worst," said Diana, adding a couple of teaspoons of water to her Scotch. They raised their classes and took a sip of their drinks.

"And after that, it becomes bearable, I know, I know. I remember it quite well, though I also remember that hangover. Girl, it's hard to keep up with you!"

"And I don't even drink that often! I haven't touched alcohol since the night we went out, last year."

Lois made a weirded out face. "Come on Diana, you're telling me you live in France and you don't drink? Not even wine?"

"Not that much. I tend to avoid anything that numbs my mind. I doubt I'll drink more than this one, it's more than enough for me."

The redhead smiled. "You drank too much, back then uh?"

Diana shook her head, as she ran the tip of her finger on the slightly wet rim of the glass. "No, not that much. I just don't like the feeling. The buzz, that initial tingle… that's something I like. Blinding drunkenness? No, it's not for me. I've seen too many friends lost, or nearly so, in the bottle after the war."

"Yeah, you warned me about that too. So, tell me. What happened?"

Diana shrugged. "Wish I know. One moment we were having breakfast after defeating Steppenwolf, in Bruce's kitchen and I was telling them the story I told you last year and the moment later Barry disappeared into thin air, leaving only a bang and a flash of lightning behind him. Before we could realize…"

"Wait a second, we who?"

"Off the record?" asked Diana.

Lois nodded. "Absolutely. This is strictly confidential, it's Lois and Diana, not Reporter Lane and informer during an interview. Whatever you tell me now won't leave this place."

"We as in Bruce, Arthur, Alfred and me. Clark had already disappeared, came home to you I suppose, and Cyborg… who know where he went. The moment Steppenwolf went back through that Mother Box and was gone for good, Alfred called us back to the manor and prepared breakfast for everyone. Anyway… Barry disappears and we barely have time to even see him disappear that he comes back, hold Steve like he was a baby. The gun he had used to ignite the mustard gas back in 1918 was still smoking. And…"

"And?" poked Lois.

"And the rest is history. I mean, he's here, he's alive… breathing and talking to me… I had gotten used to the hallucinations, seeing him when he wasn't there, knowing all too well that I had lost him even before we could begin to be something… and now he's here. What do you think happened?"

"Lots of tears, lots of joy and lots of sex?"

"Guess my last couple of days weren't too different from your couple of days." Diana took another sip of the amber liquor and relished the slightly burning sensation as it creeped down her throat. "What about you? How's Clark?"

Lois smiled, but it was strange, almost weary and shadowed but something that wasn't sadness or grief, but something even darker. Regret, maybe? "He has vague recollections of your fight with Doomsday. He says he was conscious, on and off though, for a long while. He remembers bits and pieces here and there, but says he spent a long while just wandering around, not remembering anything about himself. He said he flew back here the moment he remembered everything."

"And now?"

"He's… quiet. I mean, Clark has always been a quiet guy, a good listener and wise beyond his age but… it changed him, being dead. And amnesiac. In some ways, he's the same that died that day, in others he's a completely different man. I know it's been just a couple of days but… it's different."

"Are you sure it's him? Couldn't it be that after a year you had come to terms with his death and that changed you?" proposed Diana.

Lois sighed and downed the rest of her drink in one single gulp. "Could be. What did you say last year? That after a while it becomes…"

"Bearable. You never get over the loss of a loved one, most of all if it happens violently. It just becomes bearable."

"Yeah, maybe…" Lois agreed. "Or maybe I'm still grieving and I haven't realized he's back for good."

"Could be. How about you though? How are you coping with Steve being back after… a century?"

"Ninety nine years and sixteen days. Nineteen, if you count the days he's been here."

Lois gave her a mirthless smile. "You've kept track of the days, uh?"

"I kept track of the days we've been robbed off. The time he wished we had, the time we were supposed to have together, so he could show me a world I had no idea existed, so yes, I've kept track of the days." She took another sip and grimaced. "And now I'm keeping track of the days we have, because there's a levy to pay."

"What do you mean?"

Diana sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. "I'm immortal. He's not. If we can't find a way to cheat death a second time he will age and eventually die. And I will not, unless I'm killed in battle."

A long moment of silence fell between them, until Lois broke it with a sigh. "Oh… that's… that's horrible!"

"Don't I know it?" She took a deep breath and locked her gaze on a droplet of whisky barely hanging on the surface of the glass, before she swirled the remaining liquid and swallowed it with one single sip. "I had a panic attack yesterday, just thinking about it."

"Gosh, I wish I could tell you I understand but… I can't. How's Steve coping with it?"

She chuckled. "Way better than me. He said that he had already come to terms with dying that night on the airstrip and that this time we've been gifted is our second chance and we should make every second count."

Lois nudged her with her elbow. "Wise guy."

"Yeah… it just sucks though, you know? How can I live by his side, watch him age and grow old, and not let it ruin the moment? I just wish… I don't know… my father's never done anything for me. I got rid of Ares for him, when he had failed. He had nearly one hundred years to do something, to help me after centuries of absence. You think he moved a finger?"

"Uh, Clark's father, in the form of an AI, saved my life at least ten times, years ago."

Diana chuckled again. "What can I say, there are fathers and fathers."

Suddenly, two tall hazy glasses filled to the brim with a clear, sparkling liquid appeared in front of them. "It's only tonic water girls. It's too early to get drunk, have a break with these, before you head for larger quantities of stronger stuff," explained Melanie, the barmaid. "I'm sorry to interrupt you but I couldn't help but overhear the last part of your discussions. Is anything wrong with your fathers?" she asked.

"Oh no," intervened Lois. "Except for high blood pressure, my dad's just fine. Diana's on the other hand, he's a bit of an asshole."

Melanie sighed. "You're preaching to the choir girl… my father was never there. Never! And then he was always fighting with my brother about this and that, it was like living in under a dictatorship. There was never a quiet moment home, it's one of the reasons I left and came here."

"I hear you…" mumbled Diana. "I never met my father. For ages my mother lied to me about him, but a while ago I learned that he was always fighting with my older step brother and they almost killed each other a number of times. Nice family, uh?"

The barmaid gave them a weary smile as she poured a smaller glass of tonic water from the extendable spigot they used for soft drinks. "Seems like we could be relatives." She raised her glass and waited for the other two to do the same. "To absent fathers, and those with high blood pressure! Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"I truly hope the rest of yours lives are better than this though. Been together long?"

Diana smiled, while Lois laughed out loud. "Oh no, I'm sorry! We're just friends!"

Melanie seemed a little dismayed. "Oh my god I'm so sorry! You two always come down here together, I just assumed…" She shook her head and wiped a rogue strand of hair from her face. "I'm sorry, really."

"Hey," said Diana in the softest voice she could muster. "No harm done."

"Yeah well… sorry, anyway. I hope your love life is going better than your family, though. Last year, the first time I saw you… you both seemed a little desperate, like someone had died."

Taken by surprise by the sudden, yet polite, intermission, Diana didn't really know what to say, but Lois' quick wit saved them both from a rambling rush for an excuse to justify their behavior - and slight state of inebriation - the previous year.

"Oh yes, well… our partners are both in the army and they… well they were declared missing after the transport they were on exploded because of an IED. They actually… they were kept prisoners and they have been recently released. They're recovering at Ramstein's base in Germany, they'll be home in a week or so."

Thank Athena for her quick brain and quicker mouth. Lois Lane was a lifesaver, when it came to disengage from a tricky situation only using words.

"But that's fantastic!" Melanie nearly screamed. "So you're celebrating! Oh come on, you can't let your family's bad history tamper with such a joy! A loved one returning from death… wow! I'll crack open the good stuff!"

The young girl disappeared in the backroom, much to their disbelief, and she returned just ten seconds or so later, carrying a sealed bottle of… something in her hands. "This comes straight from another century, one of the few things that despotic father of mine left me. I was waiting for the chance to open this and I think I've found it."

"Oh please Mel, don't!" pleaded Diana. "There's no need we…"

"Come on, aren't you curious?" the girl asked as she removed the wax seal that covered the cap with a knife and then pulled the cork with a strong pull. The potent, smoked and oaky aroma filled their nostrils as the alcoholic vapors wafted up from the thin neck of the bottle.

"Wow, that's really strong!" said Lois, her eyes tearing up a little bit.

"Yeah, like love. And there's nothing stronger in this world, I firmly believe that." She grabbed three glasses and gave them a quick rinse the poured. Diana smiled, briefly, suddenly feeling a strange sense of kinship with the girl in front of her and her belief. "Now girls, a toast to… true love?"

"Long lost and found love?" prompted Lois.

"I've got a better one. To love, new and old. Lost and found. Immortal in our memories."

They clicked their glasses together and, after having banged lightly them on the surface of the counter, they downed the liquor together, in one quick sip.

Gods this is strong! Thought Diana as the liquor burned her tongue and throat, but settled in her stomach with the briefest, but most pleasurable warmth. Whatever it was, it was sweet, almost like honey but not as thick and overwhelming. It also carried a strong, tangy aroma of wood and smoke, and a hint of licorice and vanilla in the back. It coated her tongue and filled the back of her nose, and her mind was instantly brought back to the nights around the campfires with her sisters Amazons, with Menalippe telling the grand deeds of their queen Hippolyta and her second in command, her lifelong partner Antiope, or one of the magisters that recited the verses of ancient poets from all over the world. Scenes from her childhood replayed in front of her eyes like a movie, and she felt the same warmth from the alcohol spreading through her whole body, but most of all her mind felt suddenly at peace, like that liquor, whatever it was, had been able to calm all her rambling thoughts and clear her doubts about whatever the future had in store for her and Steve.

And then the warmth was transformed in a sense of security, safety and calm that washed over her like a languid wave on the shore, a slightly singing sensation on her skin that was strangely nice. No alcoholic beverage, no matter how strong, ever had that effect on her.

A sudden idea stroke her mind, she looked at Melanie and, hiding her mouth with her hand, she mouthed one word. "Afrodite?"

Melanie shrugged her shoulders and winked at her. "Everything will be fine," she replied, in a whisper. "We'll take care of you. And Steve."

Diana's shoulders sagged as she immediately realized that, unwillingly, Flash had done something she had never thought would happen: the Gods, her extended estranged family, were doing something for the first time.

And she had no idea how to deal with that!